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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Nevada grand jury indicts 2 on robo-signing charges

Two people were indicted in Nevada on alleged robo-signing charges connected to foreclosure filings, according to the Office of the Nevada Attorney General.

Gary Trafford and Gerri Sheppard, both California residents described as title officers, were indicted on a total of 606 counts by a Clark County grand jury. The indictments did not say where Trafford and Sheppard were employed.

Charges include allegations of offering false instruments for recording and false certification on certain instruments, both felonies, at the Clark County Recorder's Office between 2005 and 2008. The two were also charged with notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public, a misdemeanor.

The documents, notices of default, were used to initiate foreclosures, according to the attorney general's office. Trafford and Sheppard allegedly told employees to forge their names and notarize the signatures.

A former employee supervised by Trafford and Sheppard said she forged signatures on more than 25,000 notices of default, according to KLAS-TV in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas, the seat of Clark County, is one of the hotbeds of the housing crisis. The city was No. 5 in a list of top U.S. foreclosure cities in October from RealtyTrac after holding the top spot for 22 months.

The robo-signing scandal broke last fall, and since then has resulted in numerous investigations, including a 50-state attorneys general investigation. Discussions of a potential settlement in the AG case are still under way.

A district court judge set bail at $500,000 each for Trafford and Sheppard.